Consider This from NPR
What does it mean when the president urges Republicans to "nationalize the voting"?
08 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What did President Trump say about nationalizing the voting?
I want to play you a phone call.
OK. All right. So, Mr. President, everybody is on the line. And just so Secretary of State and two other individuals.
This is from January 2021, when President Trump was contesting Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Okay, thank you very much. Hello, Brad and Ryan and everybody. We appreciate the time and the call.
In this call, President Trump is speaking with Republican Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Secretary of State, and he tells him to re-evaluate the 2020 election results in his state.
So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780...
This call was a big deal. It was cited in Trump's impeachment that year and a central piece of evidence in a now-defunct criminal prosecution in Fulton County, Georgia. Raffensperger refused, by the way. But the call is important for another reason. The president had to ask an election official to launch an investigation in his state. He couldn't order them to.
OK, thank you, Brad. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Bye.
States have the sole power to administer elections. But now this, a new declaration from the president.
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Chapter 2: How does the Constitution define the power to regulate federal elections?
But this would be clearly unlawful and inappropriate.
Republican lawmakers are working to advance their own voting law, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which would require voters to show passports or birth certificates in order to vote. If this act passes, first of all, do you think it could pass? And second of all, how would it affect voting?
The SAVE Act is a vote suppression bill. It would block millions of American citizens from voting. It requires you to show a passport or birth certificate, as you said, in order to register to vote. And 21 million eligible American citizens don't have ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don't even have a passport. Many of us don't even know where our birth certificate is.
The SAVE Act would really upend elections and block millions of Americans. It is a real risk. I think there's going to be likely a vote on the House floor this week or next, and Americans should pay attention. This is their representative, so this is an opportunity to make their voices heard.
What is the accumulative effect of the administration's questioning of election security, particularly in this midterm year?
This is shaking voters' confidence in the system. It's actually creating fear among election administrators nationwide who are working really hard, but they're They are now under a lot of direct threats from the federal government. But I do want to reinforce that our elections are still strong. They are still administered.
We have a backbone of election workers across the country who know their jobs. We have election state and federal election laws that are on the voters' side here. And we have many, many people and entities who are working very hard to secure the elections and to ensure that the election is free and fair. That's Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice.
Thank you so much for talking to us.
Thank you for having me.
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